How Are State Court Judges Selected In Vermont?

State Superior Court judges are selected from lawyers who complete an application that is submitted to a judicial nominating committee which includes lay people, politicians and some lawyers. This committee makes the determination as to whether an attorney is “qualified” to have their nomination put forward to the governor. Once, the committee determined that only one applicant was “qualified”, leaving the governor with no choice but to select the person whose name has been forwarded but this is very rare. There is no specific definition of what constitutes a “qualified” applicant and is left to the committee’s own determination. Generally, the committee forwards the names of several people for the governor to consider for appointment.

The exception to this process are Probate Judges. Probate Judges are elected and campaign for their posts. Probate Judges are also allowed to be both judges and practicing attorneys and previously did not even have to be licensed to practice law. There are recent changes in the organization of the court system which requires Probate Judges to now be licensed attorneys, but they are still elected.

The Vermont Supreme Court justices go through the same process that Superior Court Judges go through. “Side judges” exist in Vermont and are elected, but their duties in the court system have been greatly restricted in recent years.

We limit our practice to injury cases. If we can be of service, please feel free to contact us at winburnlaw.com or 802-447-0100. We handle cases from Bennington to St. Albans, Vermont, the Northeast Kingdom to Brattleboro and all points in between.